So much to be thankful for!

I didn't get many pictures in the month of November. I either forgot the camera or the battery was dead. Having this blog definetly makes me take pictures, or at least wish I did.

Harvest Dance

I love to see Coelton enjoying his high school years by going to fun dances with cute girls! He was asked to Harvest 3 times, however, the first asker gets the date. Marnie Strasser in our ward asked him. She was very creative in how she did it. She set up a little scavenger hunt and at the end was a cake that had a hidden message. They had a cowboy theme for their group and they went horse riding during the day and ate dutch oven.

My Birthday

This year I was fed breakfast is bed at 7a.m. I had to bag the popcorn at the school, but did get to go out to lunch with my friends. We all went to Sizzler for dinner as a family. Then Caden and Joel made me a yummy birthday cake with reese's peanut butter cups on top! 39 and strong!

Nike Cross Nationals

Coelton competed in his last xc race at eagle island. The coach put their team in the championship division. They raced against many schools from all over the northwest. They did well taking 19th place. When I asked Coelton why he put them in the champs and not the varsity division he said, "Cause we could either race against the best and see what happens or take first place." It was a bitter sweet day. Last high school race, but also a great ending to a great season.

Student of the month
Both Chloe and Hailey were the student of the month at Mary McPherson Elementary. Their teachers said they were hard workers and always do their best. They are kind to everyone and help when others need it. Good job girls!

Wisdom Teeth


Coelton's wisdom teeth have been coming in and giving him trouble, but he didn't want to take them out during XC, so we waited until it was all over. He was very nervous as we watched wisdom teeth extractions on youtube. Uncle Jason took them out on a early Friday morning. I got to watch ad took some pictures. Coelton was given a few shots and was awake during the whole thing. He swelled up on his right side, he looked like he had a golf ball in his cheek, but handled the pain with ibuprofen and tylenol.

New Moon
The highly anticipated movie New Moon was released this month. Joel went to England to do business and was away for a week. He flew in on a Saturday afternoon and we went to the show with Coelton and Caden. Joel hasn't read the books, but I would tell him about them as I read them. Coelton has read them all and Caden has read the first 2. We enjoyed this movie better than Twilight. Although my guys wanted to see more vampire/wolf fights. Stephanie Meyer is Melissa Hammer's cousin. It is so interesting to me to see her fame and fortune over a story that she created with her sister.

Operation Christmas Child

The Hammer family does a Christmas service project every other year. During a service year we don't buy gifts for eachother, we put that money towards a service. We all take turns being in charge of the service project. This year Jordan and Melissa were in charge and they chose Operation Christmas Child. I took the kids shopping for FHE and we bought toys, hygeine items, learning items and candy. We wrapped shoe boxes in christmas wrapping paper and filled our boxes. We put tags on the boxes that said if it was for a girl or a boy and what age. The boxes had to be dropped of at a designated place by Nov. 23. The following Monday for FHE we drove to the Baptist church and dropped off our boxes. It was neat to see so many others there unloading shoe boxes. These boxes will be shipped over seas to countries where children are poverty stricken. It will bring a smile and much happiness to children with nothing. As we brought our boxes into the church there was many pictures and posters of children across seas with their boxes and simple treasures. It touched our hearts, and helped kick off our holidays in a wonderful way.

Eagle Scout



Caden had his court of honor this month. It was a wonderful night with LOTS of friends and family. Grandpa Judy and Grandma and Grandpa Hammer came over. I put together a slide show that was a lot of fun to see. Caden has worked hard on achieving this goal, scouting has been a good influence on his life. His scout leaders spoke and presented his eagle award. We served pumpkin pie and had a good time visiting with everyone. The Barson's and the Mortenson's our home teachers who are both in their 80's came, also most everyone who volunteered on the project was there too.



Thanksgiving


This year was a Hammer year for Thanksgiving. We all made the long journey to St. George to have thanksgiving with the Hewards. We left on Wednesday afternoon and drove to American Fork and stayed with DaNae and Randy. We got up early the next morning and made our way to St. George so the guys could play in the Turkey Bowl.
We had a wonderful meal together at a church house. Everyone was there except Julie, Jordan, Josh and Chantelle's families. We did get to see Chantelle and her cute little family later on Friday. It is wierd to see our nieces and nephews married with children of their own. We had never seen Chris, Chantelle or Andrew's little ones. It was also good to see Chad, Casey and Taylor.
We enjoyed shopping on black friday, going to the Tuacans to see the Nativity play, we also made a couple crafts and had lots of time to visit...and eat.


We split up the 9 hour drive by stopping in American Fork and staying at the Slade residence. The kids loved playing with Macey and the Cat. Collin had grown so much since the last time we had seen him. He was a little unsure of all the visitors and when I held him his lower lip stuck way out like he was about to cry. He is adorable. Joel and Coelton went with Randy to play basketball and enjoyed that. The highlight of the weekend was when the boys and Joel got to go to the BYU vs. Utah game, and when BYU won 26-23 in over time...the boys rushed the field. Very Cool.